Exclusive: In the final extracts from a new book revealing the secrets
of management, David Moyes, Arsène Wenger and Brendan Rodgers explain how to
punish bad behaviour, cope in a crisis and why dropping players is the
hardest task of all.

Disciplined: new Manchester United manager David insists that discipline has to come from withinPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

6:20AM BST 14 Aug 2013

DAVID MOYES

On maintaining discipline

The new Manchester United manager – who has grappled with the problem of Wayne Rooney wanting to quit the club ever since taking charge – offers an insight into how he confronts ill-discipline

Discipline has to come from within. If that were not so, I wouldn’t have it myself. I treat people with respect and I expect the same respect back.

If someone lets me down at any time, then it makes the relationship harder to work with.

It’s much more likely to be someone turning up late for training, maybe somebody saying something through the media which they shouldn’t have done, maybe a tweet, maybe while they are away on international duty which causes you problems.

The overall discipline of the players is much improved against previous generations.

The style of leadership is different to years gone by. Maybe leaders needed to be stricter then. In the world we are in now, players can’t really step over the mark because there will be so much to lose – their work is worth too much to them.

With camera phones and instant media, players have to be much more self-disciplined.

I personally don’t believe in fining people if I can help it.

I’ve had to do it, but I’m not a great believer in taking money away from people – it’s not usually the best solution to indiscipline.

I would rather just remove the players from the environment – I think in its own way that’s a bigger punishment.

It can cause other difficulties through the media with internet reporting, but by removing a player from the situation I’m sending him home to think about what he has done. He will have to explain to his family why he is not training.

On self-improvement

Moyes’s hunger for managerial knowledge is still voracious – even going as far as staying in a Ukrainian youth hostel during Euro 2012 when he was too late to book a hotel.

You can read books and you can learn and you can pick up things, but I had a real passion.

I wanted to get out on the road and I wanted to find new things.

I qualified as a coach very young, but my reason for becoming a coach was really to become a better player. Then the more I went on the coaching courses, the more I started to think I really enjoy being around people who talk about football.

I couldn’t wait to be standing at the side listening in – talking to the Scottish coaches about football.

There was a period of time [around the 1998 World Cup] when I wasn’t a wealthy footballer by certain standards.

To be fair, I had support from the English Professional Footballers’ Association, who helped pay for my tickets to the games because they understood that I was trying to be involved with some coaching in the national side and they helped with funding.

But I just didn’t have that level of cash to be in a different hotel each night. So I hired a car and I drove myself, two or three times sleeping in the car.

That year I had gone to a lot of the countries to ask if I could go and watch training, but found that it’s not easy to get into the international training camps – they can be a bit guarded and security conscious.

Strangely enough the only people who said I could come and watch were Craig Brown and his team at the Scotland camp.

No disrespect but, in truth, the last people I wanted to see were Scotland – I knew these guys pretty well already! But I ended up going and watching Scotland training and preparing for the World Cup and it was very valuable.

Just because you get your job, you can’t put your feet under the table and say: “I’ve made it now and this is it.”

Self-learning and self-development is essential for me.

I watch a lot of football just because I know there are a lot of things I can pick up.

If I was out of work I’d go to South America and have a look at what they are doing – at why so many players now in Europe and the Champions League are from Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina.

I’d love to get out there for a couple of months and see if there’s anything that maybe I’m missing and that I could introduce to what we do.

There are other things happening closer to home too. When I see how Spain have improved, and how Germany are bringing on all their younger players on a conveyor belt – there is so much I would like to do given more time. I don’t think I’ll ever find the complete answer to all of it, but to go and have a look is always a good beginning.

-----

ARSÈNE WENGER

Crisis management

In August 2011, Wenger suffered the worst defeat of his managerial career, an 8-2 thrashing at Manchester United which prompted suggestions his tenure at Arsenal was in jeopardy. He describes how he battled to save his season.

We were titanically bad. When you go out of a game like that you know that you face a storm. The storm is in the media, the fans, the disappointment that you will have to stand up to.

We have gone from a vertical society to a horizontal society where everybody has an opinion about every decision you make, everybody has an opinion on the internet straight away.

Basically the respect for people who make decisions is gone because every decision is questioned.

So one of the most important qualities of a good leader now is massive resistance to stress. Under stress you become smaller and smaller until you cannot give a message out any more and that, of course, is something that is vital.

That’s the moment that you have to show leadership qualities and show that you are strong and show that you don’t panic.

So basically I don’t say anything profound to the team like that on the day because they are hurt, and I am as well. Anything you say in that moment could be even more detrimental. I try to get them to pick up, individually I speak to them. I give them two days off and then we come back on Monday and we start fresh again.

At that moment you come back to the team and say: “This is what is important for us, this is our culture, this is us, so let’s come back to what we are good at and what we want.”

I also think how can I improve the results – but my checklist is more: am I in line with what I think is important in my job?

That’s why I think it’s important to not just think about winning, but also think about what is important to me in this job, in the way I see the game. Because when you go through crisis periods, that is what will help you survive.

Motivation

Wenger is the longest-serving manager in the English game, having spent almost 17 years at Arsenal. He reveals how he maintains his intensity – and how he ensures his players do the same

What keeps me going is my love for the game, for doing the job I do and for football. I have that internal desire to be as good as I can, refusing to be average.

The biggest pressure you have is to drive home on a Saturday night having lost a game and to think that some people will cry because you lost that game.

That is the biggest pressure, to let people down and I feel that the longer you stay at a club, the bigger the responsibility becomes.

Unfortunately sometimes in the job I feel very average when I don’t deliver results, but there is something in every individual that pushes him to try and be excellent. That is my petrol.

If you want to make a career at a big club you must be capable to believe in your abilities, and keep them in perspective off the field also.

You can have players who appear quickly to have a big talent, but if they cannot handle keeping their feet on the ground and continue to improve, they will be eliminated.

If a player is only motivated by money he will not go far. Players are made rich very quickly, so if he has the money and is only motivated by money where does he go?

The players at the top are people who have a very strong internal need to be the best.

One of the difficult things of being a manager is to sack 14 people every Friday morning – and then re-employ them on a Monday morning and say: “Right, we start again – I take you back on board.”

This is extremely difficult. Somebody who doesn’t play or who is injured feels useless. The difficulty of our job and the key for the club is to take care of these people.

If a player isn’t playing, he is feeling in danger and is asking how he can get out of that.

Therefore inside the club it is important that we give respect and credit to people who are not really in situations where they can show how good they are.

-----

BRENDAN RODGERS

On having style and steel

Rodgers’ firm handling of the Luis Suárez transfer saga has revealed a hard side to his nature. He reveals how that was forged by family tragedy and his failure as Reading manager, when he was sacked after just six months.

I’ve arrived where I’ve arrived by being out there and taking my own responsibility, rather than waiting for the phone to ring or somebody to support me.

My parents died young, so there have been lots of personal challenges as well as professional. That inner steel, that resolve, that perseverance, has served me well since my time at Reading. I know it’s there.

When I arrived at Swansea, I had to show my character. My career as a manager was almost over before it had begun.

I didn’t know how much of a chance I was going to get, but now I knew the rules.

My philosophy had been tested at Reading – the first time in all my years that it hadn’t worked out – and I had gone away for a six-month reflective period, so that when I arrived at Swansea, I again had great belief in my philosophy – maybe even more so than before. I was also stronger and more realistic.

I had to be more clinical in my decision-making.

Because of my caring background, I was always about giving people the opportunity and the chance. I have not lost that, but I have tempered it. I was simply giving people too many chances for too long.

So I have done three things differently. First, I became much more open in my communication. I started speaking to players like men and not boys, and I expected them to speak to me like a man.

I became straightforward with them – not waiting six months to tell them something that I know now.

Secondly, I committed to provide more quality in my work. I’d study, I’d prepare, go into detail in my planning and preparation to ensure that the players were as prepared as possible.

And thirdly I would be much more ambitious: for the club’s success, for the players’ success and for my own success – in that order. So now we have both style and steel.

That is the phrase the team uses – it is true for them, and it is true for me.